Touhou Koumakyou New Classic Practice Planner

What to practice with (and what not to)

Original Embodiment of Scarlet Devil shipped without official spell practice. New Classic adds Spell Practice Mode, plus Challenge Mode with unlimited lives and a death counter. Stage practice still exists after you unlock a stage.

Challenge Mode is not a 1CC. Unlimited lives let you finish a credit while the counter records deaths. Extra still wants a Normal-or-higher story clear without continues. Bind shot, bomb, and focus on controls. Pick a shot on the shot type ranking and keep it for a week.

Spell Practice and Challenge Mode in Touhou Koumakyou New Classic

Spell Practice

Open Spell Practice when a named card ends the credit: Rumia, Cirno, Meiling, Patchouli, Sakuya, Remilia’s last spells, or Flandre’s Extra set. Play it until you can capture (no bomb, no death) or bomb it on purpose at the same time every attempt.

Practice on the difficulty you will 1CC. If you cannot capture, write a bomb timing. Then return to a full stage so you remember the lead-in. Capture counts in practice do not unlock Extra.

When the problem is a mid-stage stream (Stage 4 books, Stage 5 opener, Extra hallway), Spell Practice will not help. Use stage practice or a Challenge Mode credit and stop at that section.

Challenge Mode as a death log

Challenge Mode’s unlimited lives exist so you can see a full credit. The death counter is the point. Play a Normal credit and write where the number jumped: Meiling’s last spell, Stage 4 books, Sakuya’s opener, Remilia’s survival spells. Spend the next session only on the top two lines.

A finish with 20 deaths is a log, not a 1CC. Standard still runs out of lives. Use Challenge Mode to map the mansion, then spend lives on Standard. New Classic shows a hitbox and boss markers; Classic hides them. Do not mix the two rulesets in one practice week.

Stage practice after unlock

Stage practice unlocks when you reach or clear that stage in a regular run on that difficulty and shot. Continues generally do not block stage unlock; they do block Extra. Clear Easy or Challenge Mode through Stage 6 once so Stages 2–6 appear, then isolate Stage 4 books, Stage 5 Sakuya, and Stage 6 Remilia.

Enter stage practice at the power you actually have after Stage 3, not always at max. Extra unlocks after a Normal-or-higher finish without continuing. Then use the Extra Stage route and the Flandre guide.

Bomb budget

Bombs are limited. Panic-bombing Cirno is how Remilia kills you with an empty stock. A Steam achievement even jokes about the tight deathbomb window (“8 Frames of Satisfaction”). Do not build a 1CC that requires perfect deathbombs.

A Normal budget that works for many shots: zero bombs on Stages 1–2; at most one on Meiling’s last spell; one or two on Patchouli cards you cannot capture; one reserved for a Sakuya survival spell; enter Remilia with two bombs and spend them on the cards the Remilia guide marks, not on a streamable opener. If you are empty at the mansion door, the credit was already lost on Stage 4.

Extra Flandre wants a separate budget. Hold stock for the last cards; the Flandre guide calls those timings out.

1CC plan

Work this sequence in order:

1. Finish Getting Started and lock a shot on the shot type ranking.
2. Clear Easy so you have seen all six stages. Use the walkthrough for collection routes.
3. Run one Normal Challenge Mode credit. Write deaths by stage. Stop.
4. Spell Practice the named cards. Stage-practice the rest.
5. Repeat Challenge Mode until deaths sit on Stage 6, not Cirno.
6. Attempt Standard Normal with the bomb budget above. Continues void Extra.
7. When Extra unlocks, use Extra Stage and How to Beat Flandre.
8. Later difficulties reuse the same loop. Remilia details stay on How to Beat Remilia.

If the HUD is not holding 60, fix system requirements before you blame Remilia. Launch SKUs sit on launch notes. Reuse this loop when a difficulty step-up resets the death counter.